The first Yuangu store originated from Beijing Jianchang Hutong. From that moment, it brings a little flavor of Hutong. Hutong and old western-style house sound like two irrelevant words. However, this flagship store on Wuyuan Road is the first collision between them. Wuyuan road is a small road in the historic area, which is located in Xuhui district. It don’t have as many shops as Wukang Road, nor is it like an international friend street as Anfu road. Wuyuan road just has the characteristics that those two roads do not have-“quiet in noisy”. To some extent, its position should belong to Yuangu.

The restaurant is a small gray building, tall, straight and simple, with some European style details, which has a typical post-modernism style. Although the façade is shabby, it looks elegant. In particular, the two big trees in the courtyard add color to this small building. I remember that Emperor Huizong of Song Dynasty had a painting of “listening to the guqin”, which was simple and concise, with three people sitting opposite each other under the pine tree. One person plays the guqin and other two people listen. This scene just fits the current situation of the courtyard. The sense of picture is hard for designers to find. But meanwhile, I am also deeply ambivalent. Can the Yuangu Hutong be well combined with the western-style houses in Shanghai? We don’t know.

The courtyard on the ground floor is the soul of the restaurant. It carries the return and yearning of nature, and it also a must for guests to enter the restaurant. The Ground floor of the small building is mainly the functional area, kitchen, bar and toilet. This is the operation lifeblood of the entire restaurant and also the busiest space of the restaurant. Walking through the bar and the arch, you can see the stairs running up and down the three floors. The stairs zigzag from bottom to top, and the Yuangu shop runs through them. The first floor is the business area, a private room, and some seats. The whole space is set with yellow art paint and decorated with red and green. If the whole picture is compared to a space, then the two people in red and green clothes like a touch of sunshine to make the space more warm and vivid. The second floor is also the business area, which is the same with the first floor. If the design of first floor is the interpretation of traditional culture, the second floor is the salute to the original building. Besides the basic function repair, we try to retain the original building structure as much as possible. I don’t know how long the history of this house is(nearly a hundred years), nor do I know whether Yuangu with the flavor of Hutong will be acclimatized when coming to Shanghai. Maybe all this has its own arrangements.

The story between the Hutong and the old western-style house has just begun. I think it must be the guests who came to Yuangu that can continue to write in the future.

Project Team
Shuang Zhao, Shangyong Wu, Yanan Zheng

Landscape Art Design
Yuxuan Yang

Photography
Xiao Tan (Studio TEN), Shuang Zhao